Thursday, October 4, 2012

Crawls... Pace...

I've had my eye of Justin Dix's upcoming sci-fi/horror/action/whoknowswhat, Crawlspace, for some time now. It comes from Greg McLean's production company and the little things I had heard lead me to believe there could be something quite special to be found. As the recent release of Bait 3D has continued to demonstrate, there isn't all that much of a local audience for horror-leaning titles in Australia. In fact, the market here is so uninterested in scary flicks that House at the End of the Street, starring Jennifer Lawrence, arguably one of the biggest names in movies right now, is going direct to DVD. For what it's worth, Bait 3D has grossed just under $1mil in two weeks, which doesn't sound all that bad under the circumstances (especially for an Australian film), but it got a big push by the local distributor and it'd be nice if genre titles didn't have to rely on foreign sales in order to make a cent and come close to breaking even.

Still, the industry continues to make them because, yes, foreign sales are continuously so strong that whatever financial disappointment greets them with local audiences, globally they're good to go. Plus, they're good breeding grounds for talent, especially those with more a commercial lean to their work. If they're made cheaply enough, these sort of films can become the best sort of advertisement for the director on a worldwide scale. If they turn out to be good films then that's just beautiful. Hell, Crawlspace is apparently already headed to British Blu-ray, which is more than can be said for most other Australian films of late (sadly).

The trailer for Crawlspace was recently released and it looks like they've actually utilized whatever budget they had quite nicely. There appears to be some nicely realised sets as well as some expansive use of the camera. As a matter of fact, that aerial shot of the planes flying over the desert gives me more confidence in the movie than anything else. If some of the (minimal) acting looks a bit iffy then I'll give it the benefit of the doubt as the rest of it looks so interesting.

Also out there are two eye-catching posters for the film. One appears to be going for a more contemplative science fiction tone, whereas the newest is a Drew Struzan influenced number by local artist, Hugh Fleming. Personally, I prefer the cleaner, sleeker first poster, but I understand that the second one is the kind that gets the online community in a tizzy so it makes sense from a buzz stand point to create it. I just think the Struzan-esque poster could have been less busy and it would have been better. Make the look of terror on the lead actress's face more noticeable by not surrounding it with as much busy frou frou around it. Having looked at it more and more, I actually think it's just the green bubbles (?) that are distracting me. It'd look a helluva lot less convoluted without them. Of course, even with them it still's a better poster than what films with 100 times the budget seem to deliver so it's basically a win all 'round. And, hey, props on a good font!

Of course, this movie isn't to be confused with another Aussie genre title named simply Crawl. We spoke about that one earlier, remember? As for Crawlspace though, I'm not sure when it will be getting a release, but I suspect some time in 2013 is on the cards. Lucky Canberra residents can catch it at their local film festival this coming November.

So, I was looking for a YouTube video of Lisa Simpson's hilarious "Jeremy's... Iron" line because I couldn't think of a punny title for the entry. In the process I found this. It's one of the strangest videos I've found and I have no idea what inspired the person to make it, but it made me bellow with laughter. Just watch and you'll see.

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